It’s hard to say if this book by psychologist Charlotte Gamache will fulfill its promise of finally allowing us to free ourselves from unattainable standards of beauty and the dictatorship of the gaze of others to embrace our body with all its imperfections. But it is certainly a guide that allows you to start a concrete process to reconnect with a positive body image. A specialist in eating disorders and body image, Charlotte Gamache is also the founder of Meilleurs jours, a platform on which she shares educational content and which won her the Prix ÉquiLibre in 2022.
In this book, sprinkled with several case examples, she explains the internal and societal mechanisms involved in the construction of an unhealthy body image. More than a reflection on the importance of cultivating self-compassion, the book directly invites introspection. Each chapter ends with reflection or evaluation exercises that identify our vulnerabilities, the beliefs that play tricks on us and the behaviors that can interfere with the process.
If weight is one of the topics discussed, it is not the only one. The effects of aging, body hair and blemishes also prompt many to declare war on their bodies.
The first contact with grossophobia is during childhood. Judgments, bullying, discrimination, remarks about weight. In movies and cartoons, too often, fat characters are presented as stupid, mean or gluttonous. To respond to the many requests from parents looking for tools to offer their children an education free of grossophobia, Edith Bernier, founder of the site Grossophobia.ca – Info
The work begins during pregnancy and even before, since according to the author, the first step is to reconcile with your body and to deconstruct your own fatphobia. Supported by the expertise of psychologist Rose-Marie Charest, she then discusses various elements related to the education of children such as the relationship with food, comments on weight, exposure to grossophobic images on television. How do you deal with a child who wants to lose weight? How do you respond to grossophobic, albeit benevolent, comments from those around you? What to do when our child wants to talk about other people’s weight? When he’s bullied or bullied? This will enlighten parents of fat children first, but also all other parents wishing to break the circle of fatphobia.
In 2021, psychoeducator and psychotherapist Marie-Michèle Ricard published From Dissatisfaction to Body Acceptance, a book for which she won the General Public Publication Prize awarded by the Order of Psychoeducators of Quebec. This theory-based book is followed this spring by a book offering 50 activities to develop a more positive relationship with your body. Each activity being preceded by a contextualization and a summary of knowledge on the topic addressed, one lives well without the other, even if it is advisable to use them together.
Here again, the approach is not exclusively centered on weight, but rather on body dissatisfaction in general. Based on the most recent research related to body image processing, the activities are varied, some can even be accompanied by an audio file. The first exercises, devoted to reflection and the formulation of one’s thoughts, are more classic, while those that follow are more rooted in action (taking part in a professional or styling photo shoot, going out in nature, initiate self-massage, yoga or body meditation).
The author specifies that these exercises have no magical power. The road to acceptance can be long and sometimes requires the support of a specialist. But for anyone who wants to dig deeper and put some effort into it, this guide is for you.
Body acceptance is also a podcast, with the launch of a new series of ten programs hosted by the psychologist and founder of BienAvecMonCorps, Stéphanie Léonard. In the first episode, which will be launched on Tuesday, the psychologist and her guests, actress Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse and the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Emotional Intelligence Online (Le CIEL), Emmanuelle Parent, try to find solutions to make better use of social networks and break the vicious circle of comparison. Masculine stereotypes, eating disorders, stress, romantic relationships, fatphobia, racism and genetics are some of the themes that will be covered in future episodes. They will be posted one at a time, every Tuesday, on the usual streaming platforms.
